At first, you think it’s a Brando experience… the whole Hollywood spirit come to life.
But Flynn offers much more here. It is spirit, but the spirit is black. It is all in the black.
Those Vanta Black armpits, dark jungles, the dark depths matching his beard, is upper lip, his eyes, his hair.
In Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes talks about the “punctum”—the point in a photograph that wounds the viewer. Staring at this photo, I long thought that the punctum was the lollipop, sliver of white that draws us into his mouth. But it’s not. It’s the armpits: dark and black, signs of an erotic monster. Lurking. All much more part of the dark world of Fassbinder’s Querelle than any Brando film. Why? Because Flynn nails it here—in the sense that he is not boasting or showing off as Brando so often does.
Flynn can pull back and mesmerize. Dark spirits do that.
Photo: Damon Baker and see this great article over at culturevultureexpress
